Sunday, November 28, 2010

a sunday in canada



trying to get homework done.

sweet day dreaming in between.

gray skies as the sun tries to breakthrough.

soul tunes to further distract.

a sunday in canada.

this is jeff jumping into a lake that wishes it could freeze.

and a lumberjack who spends his winters in the cook islands.

ontario, canada, autumn 2010.

love and health to all...

Saturday, November 27, 2010

beach glass


a young boy was wandering along a lake shore alone and in search of coconut trees in preparation for winter. the cold compounded by wind had arrived overnight and although the beach front offered no respite from the elements, it was the only place where the boy believed he could find enough brown husks to press oil for the winter.

the lake water lapped along the shore, the sand and snow seemingly melting and freezing at the same place, at the same moment, a curious phenomenom that only nature's creativity could envision.

at once nestled beneath a small grassy tussock, beside the exposed toes of the young boy, lay a brilliant piece of beach glass. the boy reached down for the smooth shard and brought it to the sky for a better look. he was amazed, first that the edges of this piece of glass had morphed and adapted, glass soft to water and malleable to the elements, certainly the result of high seas and cyclones, devoured by whales in one gulp, processed through the intestines of sea creatures that even man had never seen, those glorious hot pink and glow in the dark green blowfish that live where sunlight is merely a dream.

but what truly amazed the young boy was that this brilliant piece of sea glass was here on a lake shore, far from any ocean or river. the boy had never encountered sea glass next to a lake and as the wind picked up, he looked out past the jetty, over the white caps and attributed this anomaly to either the constant beauty of life or the greatness of God, though neither had ever really made much sense to him, that being the meaning of life or God's relation to sea glass.

at that precise moment of his day dreaming, with a thought distant and a mind even farther, a gust of heavenly wind blew across the lake and scattered stinging sand everywhere. the boy closed his eyes and covered his face in his shirt. the sand stung his ankles and burned his exposed tummy, his paunch bare for the sake of his vision.

though the fury lasted mere seconds, it seemed like forever and when it stopped the boy opened his eyes and looked around. the wind had blown the sand and snow back into the lake and had exposed a beach full of round and perfectly smooth sea glass as far as the eye could see. it was a beach of sea glass, millions of pieces, each glass morsel as smooth as a vintage cola bottle.

the boy got down low, his face at ground level and he closed one eye for a better look. the rainbow glass went on forever, an infinite shore line resembling a kaleidescope. and it dawned on him that not only was he looking at a stained glass shore, but beneath his feet, on this beach, lay glass once sharp that had been battered and bashed, broken and shattered, yet it was something about the journey on the sea of life, the yielding to the elements, soft overcoming hard, water shaping glass, that had smoothed what was once rough and sharp and jagged into a complete complementary creation.

alas, the boy was tired and after a short swim he returned to shore exhausted and took a nap, baking in the sun.

then hours later, waking up, the young boy started to build a beautiful sail boat out of that beach of sea glass, intent on navigating the winds and the blowing breezes. although he didn't know how long it would take, the boy did know exactly where he was hoping to go and whom he was hoping to find.

love and health to all...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

lakes to rivers to seas



back in the day, even today, sailors on boats write messages, children on shores place poems and addresses into bottles, capped and plug to float the high seas until their messages reach a land far and wide, with the hope that maybe they'll get a letter back from the lucky beach wanderer or kayaker who comes up with the bottle, a message bobbing on the surface, in the hopes it will find its reader.

but what happens when that bottle is tossed from a boathouse on a lake, far from a river or ocean. will that lake allow it to journey to the destination the stars have set for it, distant lands? perhaps, like the cycles of life, it will in due time make it, though it may lay stagnant in an eddy for a day, or perhaps a black bear will play with it and stall its course, but eventually yearning for the fast flow of water, to allow it to surf and catch its weight and most importantly its intended direction, the address inferred through fate and eventual destiny.

but it is the tides and the time, patience really, that allows for the message in the bottle reach a shore, or another boat, the hand that finally lifts the bottle from its journey, curiosity as to what a bottle with a note is doing on this shore. of course, the journey, through stormy seas and calm dawns, those cycles, those seasons, in the end, it's not the journey of the vessel but the words inside that are most important...

this is a lake in northern ontario in november 2010.

love and health to all...

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

hibernating



why don't humans hibernate? or do we in our own special ways? sometimes i think i'm a bear, perhaps a black bear or perhaps a grizzly bear, but a bear resting throughout the winter. i'd guess that bears do a lot of meditating in the winter time, poking their heads out their caves and looking at the beautiful blanket of white covering the world around them. bears and other creatures in the world must think about life throughout the winter and in anticipation of spring and flowers and life.

the winter is coming here in canada. to embrace it is vital, to hibernate is healthy, to smile through it essential.

this is up north huntsville way at my buddy blair's cottage. owls inside and right side up and wood birds outside, november 2010, ontario, canada.

love and health to all...